Good news, I’m now a senior in the second semester, meaning I’m a lame duck student. I can devote more time to translation… Oh, and since people ask how I find time for this let me say that my average time is 2 Hours +-30 minutes per chapter. it isn’t that bad.

Chapter 231: Miscalculations

Sparks fly as Kiel’s claws brush lightly against my shield.
Though she can’t overcome my Defense, it doesn’t feel good to intercept the momentum from a full-body attack.

All of the attacking slave’s attacks seem to be centered on me.
I’ve narrowly managed to block everything without taking damage, but I wonder how much longer I can keep this up.
As I receive attacks, I feel the curse afflicting them dealing additional damage to me.

It feels like my internal organs are twisting around each other. I feel dizzy.
Damn. At this rate, my body isn’t going to hold up.

“All is in the name of Justice. Niichan must be defeated!” (Kiel)
“Kiel… you better remember this later. Even if you were brainwashed, that doesn’t mean I’m lessening your punishment for this at all.” (Naofumi)

… This justice crap is getting annoying!
Aren’t they getting something wrong here?
I’m no saint. I’m no philanthropist.
Of course I would use all of you people.

I mean, aren’t I always saying it?
‘Get back to work,’ and such.

No, the normal Kiel should be well aware of that.
I should think of the person in front of me as a separate entity controlling Kiel’s body.
What should I do? Should I use Wrath and turn everything to ash?

“You’re wrong! Naofumi-san is… definitely not evil!” (Rishia)

Rishia cautions Kiel with a strong tone of voice.
What?
I didn’t know she could speak with such a tone.

“Naofumi-chan, should this Onee-san do something radical to gain control of the situation?” (Sadina)
“What do you plan on doing?” (Naofumi)

Ah, by the way, Sadina is level 75. Her stats are also quite high.
Honestly, if you don’t count Raphtalia and Firo, her stats are some of the highest I’ve seen. They’re higher than Kiel’s.
Her weak points are Speed and Attack Range.
But, when in the water, these weaknesses disappear.

“Just… a little.” (Sadina)
“… I asked what you were going to do.” (Naofumi)
“Let’s see. The result of this plan will probably make you forgive Kiel and the others.” (Sadina)
“Oi! You couldn’t be…” (Naofumi)

『I who has understood the source of power command. Let the truth once again manifest itself. Oh lightning, shoot down all that stand before me! All Dreifach Chain Lightning!』

From the tip of Sadina’s harpoon, several streams of lightning bright enough to cause permanent eye damage shoot out towards the brainwashed children.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” (Children)

Kiel and the others fall to the ground.
The lightning continues for a while. I smell the scent of burnt hair.

“Sadina, you…” (Naofumi)
“It’s alright. I controlled the output. If I was serious, it would look even more amazing.” (Sadina)

I see. (TL: Naofumi uses sarcastic slang here)

“Is everyone alive?” (Naofumi)
“We’re fine, but some people are beginning to spout words similar to Kiel-kun.” (Rishia)

Ah, so they awakened to the wonderful world of Justice.
Is this some sort of religious cult?
… The situation is quite unfavorable.

“Brother of the Shield, prepare yourself!” (Slave) (TL: This is not Kiel)

So there were still some hiding around.
More of the missing children begin pouring into the village.
Dammit… They’re putting my subordinates to good use.

They’re definitely cutting their losses here.
Even if Itsuki was consumed by his curse, I doubt he would have enough power to beat me and my subordinates head on in battle.

But, the people standing before me are those I personally raised and gave stat growth increases to.
These children are already leagues above the average knights and adventurers.
And for many of them, like Raphtalia, this is their homeland.

Normally, this would be a group that even entire countries would hesitate to challenge.
I have to congratulate him for the brilliance of his idea, but it’s quite inhumane.

He probably lured out the weakest of slaves, brainwashed them, sent them back, and had them bring their friends. In the end, everyone would happily try to kill me.
He probably spent a long time planning this.
Ah… This really is hitting below the belt.

Among the seven sins, I wonder which one would grant such an ability.

“Is this all of the slaves that went missing?” (Naofumi)
“No… I think it’s less than half.” (Rishia)

As I thought.
Honestly, if he suddenly gained such an amazing fighting force, he would start off by spreading it out.
Also…

“That carriage is…” (Naofumi)

The slaves were carried off towards it, but the battle’s been going on for a while, and I’ve seen no activity from it. Is Itsuki there?
Did he miss his chance to make a dramatic entrance?
I wonder. Something seems fundamentally wrong here. I have a bad feeling about this.

“How long do you think Kiel’s group will be knocked out for?” (Naofumi)
“You shouldn’t expect too much. Kiel-chan’s become quite strong.” (Sadina)
“Then we’d better investigate that carriage while we can. We may find the source.” (Naofumi)
“Naofumi-san…” (Rishia)
“What is it, Rishia?” (Naofumi)
“…” (Rishia)

Is she going to ask me to spare Itsuki?
Female Knight did something like that as well.
Well it depends on the situation. If I find a way to free Itsuki of his curse, I may be able to use him later.
And from his ability to cause such chaos, I think the boy will be quite useful.
At least in battle.
I wait for Rishia’s question, but it doesn’t come.

I guess she’s dealing with many conflicted emotions. I wonder what she’ll do when she meets Itsuki.
Anyways, I hope it doesn’t come to her betraying me.
That would really be a pain. I’ll have to use the slave seal to stop her then.
I open Rishia’s slave management screen just in case.

“Oi, whoever’s hiding in the carriage! Just get out already.” (Naofumi)

I shout out as I approach it.
… Is there really no one there?
That can’t be. From Kiel and the others’ movements, there’s got to be something here.

“Oi!” (Naofumi)

This isn’t getting anywhere.

“Sadina, go cast your magic on that carriage.” (Naofumi)
“Are you sure?” (Sadina)
“I gave enough warning. Use your full power on this one.” (Naofumi)
“I guess there’s no helping it.” (Sadina)

Sadina approves my proposal to attack the carriage.

『I who has understood the source of power command. Let the truth once again manifest itself. Rain down thunder on my enemies! Dreifach Thunderbolt!』

Thunder sounds out as a bolt of electricity strikes the carriage.
And a human figure quickly scrambles out just in the knick of time.

“What!?” (Naofumi)

I-it’s not Itsuki…

The figure held a cane in his hands and wore a long robe. On his head was a needlessly pointy hat. It was the stereotypical clothing of a mage you would find in a child’s story book.
The robe had intricate embroidery stretched over the trim, and the cane gave off an expensive feeling.
I can tell from a glance that the hat was also made of good materials.

But the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that the man was not Itsuki.
He was clearly a mage of some sort. I have the feeling that I’ve seen him somewhere before, but I can’t remember where.
And… he pulls out a dagger glowing with a strange light from the chest area of the robe.

“You bastard… Devil of the Shield! Treating your own subordinates and ours in such an inhumane manner.” (Mage)

Who was this guy again?
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him… somewhere.

He seems to know me, but… is he the guy Ren mentioned as being Witch’s companion?
That means that there’s a possibility I may have met him before.
I have some familiarity, but… It’s just not coming to me.

“Could it be…” (Rishia)

Rishia’s face becomes increasingly pale.
What? Do you know him?

As I thought about it, I remembered.

I’m pretty sure this guy was the mage in Itsuki’s party.
The time I spent with that party was short, but I think this guy may have been there.
I do feel a little guilty, but you can’t expect me to remember every little stupid detail.

The reason Ren didn’t remember clearly was because he went off and did Solo Play on Cal Mira. He probably only saw him for a few minutes.
I shouldn’t be criticizing him for it though. Besides Armor, I don’t remember any of them.
I mean, they all said pretty much the same things.
To put it bluntly, I don’t remember anyone from Itsuki’s party.

But… This is quite a miscalculation.
The contagious nature of the brainwashing was one thing, but Itsuki isn’t even here.
And the wound Imya’s uncle received was not by bow.
Kiel seemed to refer to more than one person when she spoke as well.

Did I think it was Itsuki due to the continued utterance of the word ‘Justice’?
No, there’s still a possibility he’s involved in this.

Okay, I’ll capture this guy and make him spill everything.

“Welst-san! Why are you in a place like this!?” (Rishia)

He had a name like that? First I’m hearing of it.
It’s not like I care or anything.

Among the other heroes’ companions, there are very few that I even remember.
And wasn’t Itsuki abandoned by his companions?
I assumed as such when I saw him acting independently, but I guess I should have investigated further.
Ren’s died, and Motoyasu’s ran away.

I see. So Itsuki’s companions survived.
Then, why was Itsuki mentally broken and fighting in Zeltburg?

“Why? That’s what I should be saying. Rishia, to think you would be conspiring with the Devil of the Shield… What could you be thinking?”

Nonono, the ones who drove Rishia out were you people.
You were there–you saw everything.
You can’t just conveniently forget that at this point in time.

I think the difficulty of college depends on how you choose to handle it, if you find resources like ratemyprofessors.com and slugbooks.com (I may have mistyped those, but high school students, remember these, you can google them to get it right) you can get yourself the easier classes and teachers as well as get your books for dirt cheap. Other than that, don’t take more classes than you have to and balance out your classes between the enjoyable ones and the annoying ones, like in my opinion I’ll take a science class (enjoyable to me) with a math class (I hate math) this way it’s not all bad, then you just need to make sure you do your homework on time and you’ll be fine. It’s easier than High School for me because you can pick your schedule, you can have all of your classes in a series, one after another, have an hour or so break between each one if you choose, and for some you can have it set up to have them once a week. This all depends on what your university has available for course selection, but college can be fairly easy if you handle it properly.

I need to comment on this, rather than college being hard, it would be your parents(the boastful ones) that will get on your ass saying stuff like “Why is your grade like this” or “Why did you fail that subject”. Double the pressure and stress levels. I miss high school.

The fact your parents were lax before is a possibility to why you would fail or not get acceptable grades currently in the first place. If it wasn’t as hard as you’re saying then your parents wouldn’t even have anything to complain about, and you wouldn’t have anything to stress about.

The real issue is that college should be hard, even though it isn’t for a large population and that’s only because today caters to accessibility rather than ability. This way, the education system can massively profit off of the average for no effort all the while people that have the tools for success whether it be resources or superiority will still have the necessary programs funded by the entirety. It’s cost efficient and the only ones who will disagree with the method are the ignorant who have no power or general importance in the first place. The only problem depending on what side you’re on is that this system inherently encourages a stagnant mentality of the average student population who is only set for failure from then on. Ex. average grade is a high B low A when C is literally defined as average.

Skreame, I have to disagree with you on that one, I don’t think college should be hard but rather challenging, pushing you to improve. Sometimes the classes will be easy, requiring little work to pass them, but learning the material is a challenge. Using the website I listed above goes both ways, as it’s main purpose is to avoid the bad teachers. When I first got into college, before I knew about the website, my first English teacher was a terrible teacher. She assigned a 5 page essay every day, didn’t talk to us about what our problems were or what the common mistakes were, and expected the essay in the next day. It was a class held 3 times a week. Basically we were required to teach ourselves right out of the book. The worst part was that she didn’t get any of the papers back to us until about 3/4ths of the way through the semester but still raised the bar, only about 5/30 passed the class. Using the website you can use the system to go the course you want, challenging but fair, easy and simple, however you want it, but you can at least guarantee you’ll be able to avoid the bad teachers like the one I mentioned.

Falinmer, apparently you only read the first sentence as the sole thing you’re doing in your misunderstanding is providing more unneeded detail to the same context. Hard and challenging are facets of the same issue of difficulty. If anything, the only thing ‘challenging’ further insinuates is the subjects motivation as it is definitive to the notion of action, which is entirely subjective. “The material is hard or difficult, learning it was challenging.” As much as I disagree with the fact you try to objectively state learning all material is challenging, at least we can hopefully agree from now on to stay on the subject of material for validity of difficulty. Unrelated to material- in the aspect of professors, if they are not conducive, then it is either impossible or possible to an extent. The measure of that extent is the student’s adaptability alone. You can chalk it up to being ill-suited if you want clear cut excuse. “A hammer is ill-suited to tighten a bolt, difficulty is an absurd status to measure in this situation.” This sort of thing. I’m not going to argue the responsibility of a student in regards to mindset when it comes to a good fit or not. If some need their hand held or learning from a book is too hard, it certainly was passable for others. Simply put, I doubt we will ever agree as I suspect your notion of challenging is just too subjective fitting into your own parameters while maintaining ambiguous use and relation.

Sir i try to speak with someone of your time to try to get permition to put The n alias of your members time names on my fanfiction as a form of show my thanks for The work that you and your time did. Can someone give a go a ahead or not to my story?
Thank you for your time
Thank

congrats and thanks for the translations
though not trying to be annoying or come off the wrong way but will we be expecting updates for KnW as well since its been awhile…if not can always wait don’t want to rush you since it already amazing how your translating this for us.

In university and college what we call major in the US is the field you are studying, for example psychology, biology, engineering, etc… but your bio says that you are a high school student, so I guess special-kun got it wrong. XD